Why do we need to know this stuff?? Why do we need to know this stuff?? Origin of the ocean is linked to the origin of Earth Atoms that make up Earth and its ocean came from exploding stars…all started with the Big Bang. “Big Bang” = cosmic explosion that marked the origin of the universe (atom to grapefruit size in a fraction of a second)

~ 4.5 billion years ago; life is gassy Formation of our Solar System

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• The sun is one of 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy • (Galaxy = huge rotating aggregation of stars, dust, gas, debris held together by gravity) • Our Solar System is 4.5 billion years old • Terrestrial Planets are rocky/solid (Mercury, Venus, Earth , Mars; Mercury is mostly Fe as iron is solid at high temps) • Jovian Planets are composed primarily of volatile gases (i.e. ammonia and methane; these can congeal only at cold temperatures) (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto )

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“Is Pluto a planet? For an object to be a planet, it needs to meet these three requirements defined by the International Astronomical Union in 2006: It needs to be in orbit around the Sun- Yes, so maybe Pluto is a planet. It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape- Pluto…check It needs to have "cleared the neighborhood" of its orbit- Uh oh. Here's the rule breaker. According to this, Pluto is not a planet. What does "cleared its neighborhood" mean? As planets form, they become the dominant gravitational body in their orbit in the Solar System. As they interact with other, smaller objects, they either consume them, or sling them away with their gravity. Pluto is only 0.07 times the mass of the other objects in its orbit. The

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